First, they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me The above four stanzas, variations of which have been named…
Author: Hassan Gimba
“When there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do you no harm.” – Ancient proverb. “The Ides of March”, made popular by William Shakespeare in his book, Julius Caesar, is the 74th day in the Roman calendar, corresponding to 15th March. Marked by several religious observances, it was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts. The Ides of March is best known to us as the date Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC after a seer had warned him to “beware the Ides of March”. In a story of betrayals, about 60 conspirators…
I once had cause to quote Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s 1980 hit song, “Authority Stealing”, where the Afrobeat maestro sang “You be thief” while the chorus chanted “I no be thief”, “You be rogue”, “I no be rogue”, etc, The song readily comes to mind because Nnamdi Kanu denied being an Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) member. Like Judas Iscariot, who gave Jesus Christ “the kiss of death” and betrayed him, two weeks ago in the court, Nnamdi Kanu, who Igbo separatists see as their infallible and courageous leader, denied them vehemently. The “lion” of Isiama Afara, who calls on his…
Being a speech delivered by Hassan Gimba, publisher of Neptune Prime online newspaper and magazine, chairman Northeast Publishers’ Forum, as the Guest Speaker at the 6th Annual Awards and Recognition Night of the Northeast Star magazine, held on the 21st of October, 2021 at the Conference Hall of AUN, Yola, Adamawa State. I find it imperative because it is now the season for aspirants to come out and work towards becoming candidates of their respective parties. All protocols observed. The North East came into existence on the 5th of May, 1967 when, in his bid to check the influence of Odumegwu Ojukwu in the East, General Yakubu Gowon…
We have been talking about the Rule of Law for some weeks now. Today, I give Ronald Bailey, an American libertarian science writer, who has written or edited several books on economics, ecology, and biotechnology the chance to show to us how the rule of law makes people wealthier. Please read: A Mexican migrant to the U.S. is five times more productive than one who stays home. Why is that? The answer is not the obvious one: This country has more machinery or tools or natural resources. Instead, according to some remarkable but largely ignored research — by the World…
I wanted to continue with my treatise on the Rule of Law as our only panacea for survival when a clarion call by the governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Aminu Masari, caught my attention. It might have come as a shock to many when Masari called on people of his state to arm themselves, rise, and confront bandits to defend themselves. He lamented that security officials alone cannot tackle insecurity in the state. Masari’s state, like other northwest and north-central states of Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna and Kogi, has witnessed incessant attacks by bandits linked to the dreaded…
Many patriots concerned with our rapid nose-diving in morals and abandonment of the rule of law believe that the British left too early. Some theorize that perhaps if our independence, achieved on a platter of gold, was delayed for 20 more years, we would have still been on the course. Had we gotten our independence in 1980, about three generations of Nigerians would have gone through tutelage under the prim and proper Britons rather than just one generation. And perhaps respect for the rule of law might have been so engraved in our national psyche, they reason. Well, our situation…
This is the second part of our treatise on the rule of law that started last week. The rule of law is about the creation of laws, their enforcement so that no one – including the most highly placed citizen – is above the law. When one looks at how organised countries have control over their affairs, one sees how the weakest as well as the strongest face the same law and get the same justice when they get caught with a misdemeanour. In an ideal country, those who are at the helm of affairs are ever mindful of doing…
Our current situation of a glaring failure of the rule of law must disturb any Nigerian who has come of age. The average citizen today lives in fear. When you retire into your house, you pray to God to deliver you from evil marauders who have removed peace from the calmness of the night. When the sun rises, you again rely on God to protect you from those who have become the law unto themselves. In Nigeria today, the rule of law has taken flight. Charlatans carrying guns that are daily becoming accessible to any riff-raff who wants to own…
If it were a fairy tale, his story would have started with “once upon a time, in the not so sleepy village of Buni Gari, a child of destiny was born to the industrious family of Alhaji Bukar and Hajiya Khadija.” His story is stuff fit for legends. Hardly do you find a human being like Governor Mai Mala Buni, blessed with power and wealth, the two most sought-after possessions, yet imbued with humility, generosity, grace and the unquenchable desire to not only serve others but empower them as well. When Mai Mala Buni was born on November 19, 1967,…
Even though Anambra has been in the kitty of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) for a long time, the recently concluded gubernatorial election in which Professor Charles Soludo bested other candidates to emerge winner is a straightforward case of identity politics. Identity politics is a political approach in which people of a particular gender, religion, tribe, ethnicity, race, social background, class, etc., develop political agendas based upon these identities. The term can apply to multiculturalism, women’s movements, civil rights, lesbian and gay movements, and regional separatist movements. While a majority of the Igbo may not be comfortable with a…
Yobe is a small agrarian state on the path to becoming great. All those who governed it ensured this. All the past governors, one way or the other, have taken the state beyond how they met it. There have been hiccups here and there, disappointments now and then, but that’s okay; that’s human nature for you, and how anything human grows. The current governor, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, has, since receiving the baton of the state’s leadership, been doing his best in the infrastructural development of the young, growing state that Yobe is. He is about commissioning thousands of houses…
When the news hit the airwaves that the federal government had budgeted N6.3 billion to build an airport at Wachakal, in Yobe State, 130 kilometres from Damaturu, the state capital, not a few people were taken by surprise. This is because there is already an international cargo airport, which can serve as a normal airport as well, being built in the state capital. In 2017, the then governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam, had awarded the contract for its building at the cost of N11.3 billion with the promise that the contractors would complete it by the end of his tenure, which…
There is light on the horizon for Nigeria. The fight against insurgency in the North East is now succeeding since the change of military chiefs and the acquisition of new weapons. We can also say this for the fight against the bandits in the North West. The South West is calming down since Sunday Igboho’s disappearing charm failed him in Cotonou. From all indications the South East too will normalise since the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, their enfant terrible. However, North Central is now in turmoil as schools are being closed, some indefinitely, by governments because of the escalating activities…
The calls for Nigeria to dissolve into its various parts have never been this high. The call is more strident in the Southern part of the country. In the South East, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is calling for autonomy of the zone, populated by the Igbo. In the South West, there are also such calls. The North, too, is not left out as many stakeholders align with those who think it is not worth remaining in a union with those who no longer want it. In the South, especially the east, the agitation is so widespread and gaining…
One of the conspiracy theories parroted by some people in Nigeria is that the Nigerian Army conscripts “repentant” Boko Haram fighters into its ranks. It even goes further to say that the conscripts are the ones transported to kill them and grab their lands! Their minders tell them that there is a purported jihad going on and the Fulani will kill all of them. In this century, with the world now a global village, they fall prey to the lies and manipulations of the wicked. Of course, this is just one of many conspiracy theories propounded by haters who want…
Anyone conversant with Nigeria’s political history knows that politicians, both those in babban riga and khaki, handle government appointments and offices with politics in mind. In most cases, no one gives a hoot about merit. Even in the First Republic when Sir Ahmadu Bello’s Northern People’s Congress (NPC) entered a political marriage of convenience with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian National People’s Congress (NNPC), and they came to the table to share the “spoils” of office, which went to which party, or tribe, was the top menu. When General Murtala Ramat Muhammad got assassinated in a coup d’état on 13 February…
There are a number of issues on the public burner. I could have gone on with Part 2 of my write-up on General T.Y. Danjuma and what Nigeria could take out of him. But that should wait. There is also Sambisa Forest, Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP). And then, of course, the brouhaha about the ban on open grazing in the south. The death of General Attahiru Ibrahim, the Chief of Army Staff, is the freshest. Sambisa needs to be talked about because it is like the spiritual base of Boko Haram and…
Our next-generation may not know what our generation knew, may not have what we had. We have failed to give them what the previous generation gave us. The peace and tranquillity we knew, the comfort and ease we had, the security and brotherhood we enjoyed, the careful laying of the foundation for our future we witnessed – all these we have failed to transfer to the next generation because we have thrown away the baton. The problems of Nigeria are such that you get lost when talking about them. Where do you start from? The betrayal of confidence by leadership…
The Igbo are a resilient lot, an egalitarian and industrious people. Defined as a meta-ethnicity native and one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, they are predominant in South Eastern and mid-western Nigeria. Though there is a claim by some of them that they descended from Jews, the World Culture Encyclopaedia has it that the Igbo people have no common traditional story of their origins. It said historians have proposed two major theories of Igbo origins. One claims the existence of a core area, or “nuclear Igboland.” The other claims they descended from waves of immigrants from the north…
